Pleiotropic Effects of the Nude Mutation

Mice with the nude mutation exhibited thymic dysgenesis, hairlessness, and abnormal development of gonads and salivary glands. While their immunologic and reproductive issues could be addressed with thymus grafts, these interventions did not affect hair growth. Experiments showed that skin from nude mice did not grow hair even when grafted onto normal mice, while normal skin grafted onto nude mice retained hair growth. This indicated that the hairlessness was not a secondary effect of thymic issues but rather that both the thymus and skin shared a common defect.